Sunday, 23 October 2011

'What is is it? Are you doing another crazy blog and want us to take part?'

'No, it's more important than that. We are going to adopt some hens. Ex Battery hens, they will need a lot of love and caring for, I need you to help me.

They will not look like you or behave like you. They will not have feathers and they may not be able to walk and talk as you do, but I want you to accept them as you would any other hen. We need to work together to make them happy when they come to their new home.'

'Oh fab, this sounds good, new sisters!'

' I want to play football with them.'

'I shall give them beauty tips.'

'But hold on, where are they going to live?'

'Here, I need to make sure they are OK before you all get acquainted, you will be able to get to know each other slowly this way, and you can natter over the garden fence to each other.'

'Oh that's a cool little coop, we will come and visit them, perhaps we will invite them round to us some time.'

'Yes, we will, I can't wait to meet our new additions. The door is always open to any friend - inside the chicken coop!'

'This book is worth buying'

'Trust me - I'm a chicken!'

Inside (and out) of the chicken coop

Hello and welcome to my blog. I hope you have fun viewing some of the photos and stories, a lot of them are aimed at the younger generation, but hope will appeal to anyone who loves keeping chickens as pets. I have been keeping chickens for several years now, they really inspire my writing as they are very comical. My original hens inspired me to write my book 'One Hundred Ways For A Chicken To Train Its Human' which was published by Hodder and Stoughton in March 2007. Now this little clan keep me blogging about them.

Apart from my hens, I do write other stuff too, I am trying to get my Novel - Red Kite, Published but it's so difficult without an agent, and trying to find an agent is equally as hard. However I shall not give up - that's the one thing I am certain of. In the meantime I am writing freelance magazine articles and children's stories.

Gentlemen of the River - Phyllis Blakemore

I am very proud to announce that my Mother has just had her book published. ' Gentlemen of the River - The last Coracle men of the Severn Gorge' is a lovely book about the lives of the coracle men who spent most of their lives around the River Severn in Ironbridge. It spans the generations of the Rogers family who had a long history of coracle making. My Mom knew Eusty very well as she grew up in Ironbridge. He was the very last of the coracle men of that time. I lived there for some time too and he was a wonderful character. It was very sad when he died on January 31 2003 as a lot of skill and a huge amount of memories went with him.

The photographs show a glimpse of what life was like in Ironbridge before it was a major tourist attraction and helps to tell the story of an ancient craft which is still going strong with the modern day coracle makers of today.

It is published by Stenlake Publishing Ltd and priced at a very reasonable £7.99.

Mom with her book

Gentlemen of the River

Barmouth 2009

We recently took my Mom to Barmouth for a weekend break and had hours of fun on the beach by drawing animals in the sand. We had limited time to create our sand art, as the sea was fast on our heels. My Mom really surprised me when she drew a perfect Micky Mouse, which I feel was good enough for any comic of today. Our chickens were not so good, and they were soon to be washed away by the tide, but the memories of that time on a deserted beach as three adults being children again will remain as a lovely end to the summer of 2009.